What Happened to East St. Louis?

It's been like this for DECADES. Escape From New York was shot there because of how it looked and that was in 1981.

Two words say exactly what happened (and what's happening to cities around it), WHITE FLIGHT.

Anyone else remember East StLouis had the older buildings facing Downtown StL and in HUGE letter someone had painted the great quote that we laughed at for years(1980’s)
COBB PEETE SELLS ONE SPERM
The “hand” or “The Box” across the river…give this “hand” $10 and drive around to the other side of the building and pick up rolled joints(weed)😎
Fireworks viewing was great over there! - everybody got along!!!

I left in 2007 and it was crazy poor no jobs anywhere lived right down from the metrolink and church's chicken left at the drive through liquor store. All we did was sell caps and chill nothing else to do really anyone from east st louis will know what i am saying .

glad i left !

"What happened to East St. Louis?"

Well, should we start with demographics?

East St. Louis, Gary, and Camden can be friends

It's such a disgusting piece of crap town, I feel bad for anyone stuck there.

N$$G@Z Happened 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

America happened to it.A shit country with no social safety net.

Same thing that happened to every other major city what ever they touch they fuk it up

This short vid missed the largest cause of ESL's demise. Many of large local factories outside ESL incorporated their properties into their own "towns". Once this happened, the businesses in those sham townships were protected from being incorporated or annexed into ESL's city limits. This meant ESL could not collect the taxes or impact fees needed for services like fire and police departments, health departments, trash collection, or school districts. Private business concerns benefitted from the presence of a workforce but avoided funding the services required to sustain that workforce. Some of the blame for this falls on local and state regulators that allowed the sham incorporations to happen in the first place. ESL is a textbook example of what happens when private business interests are allowed to operate with no obligation to sustain the conditions that allow them to thrive in the first place, and government won’t or can’t step in to correct the situation.

Democrats is what happened.

It is the saddest city I've ever seen.

East St. Louis should be in Louisiana!!

I understand St.Louis also has problems. As soon as you deindustrialize, there goes the economy and blight sets in.

I grew up in East. St. Louis. I LOVED it. Since it was MOSTLY BLK they didnt CARE. This was in the 70's. God BLESS AMERICA(Sarcasm)

The soft bigotry of low expectations. If you don't expect people to do better and hold them accountable then they will fall to the lowest denominator.
White liberals are the scourge of western civilization......and im white.....

What do you mean what happened? It’s obvious what happened. Geez.

just another liberal cesspool

Perhaps the demographics play a large role in this city’s diminshment. Mmmmmmmm??!

Do 220 white people (1%) really live in east St. Louis?

oh we know precisely what happened. You are refusing to address what happened and using phrases like "demographic change" and "white flight" to deflect from discussing the main reason why East St. Louis went to hell. Then, you are going to blame everyone who does not support deranged leftist progressive policies as somehow responsible for "victimizing" those responsible for what caused East St. Louis's decline.

Not a single mention of how drastically the racial demographics of the city changed in its history.

My grandfather had a large business in ESL back in the 40's thru to 1975. He sold out to foreign interest based on EST's inadequate work force. When I asked what that meant he said that the work force wouldn't show up for work sober, they stole from the company, they too often strike for higher wages and sold drugs on company property. If a drunk employee got hurt he sued the company.
The business moved to Taiwan where the workers are ultra loyal to the company, work very hard, don't use drugs, don't steal, very smart employees who would come up with time saving ideas to enrich the company. How can you argue with that? Same thing happened in Detroit. It was so much better to leave the laziness, bad attitudes, strikes, and employee unrest behind and move to where the employees loved the company they worked for. American manufacturing died as a result of it's employees. Not for anyother reason. We have only ourselves to blame.

Crime and criminals happened...it's what happens when people give up and no longer care about the state of their surroundings.

I have lived here for 70 years.... white people slowly moved out... when that happened everything collapsed...end of story.

You would think that people would buy up the properties a crossed from STL cause it would be so close to downtown.

This is what the democrats do to cities I remember every Mayor of E. St.Louis was arrested for corruption.

What happened to East St. Louis ? It found it self in Illinois and realized it was over before it ever got started 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

I grew up in E St Louis in the 40's, 50's & 60's. I left in early 1964 for the USMC & Vietnam and never really returned except for short visits. I now live about 35 miles away in High Ridge MO. I guess I didn't realize just how bad it was. I thought that I had a pretty dang good childhood. The blight didnt really start until the late 60's. My house at 508 N 43rd St still stands although it has iron bars over the doors and windows now. It stands just a few blocks from E St Louis Senior High School.

East St. Louis is Nothing but A swap. I didn't necessarily live in the city of East Saint Louis but my family was mainly born and raised in East. Saint Louis like my mom for an example. Downtown East Saint Louis was like my favorite area to go to .I guess it was a little exciting when I was a child but still not a good place to raise children. I may not have seen all The good things that happened in East Saint Louis before I was born but there was good memories for me as a child. Even though the crimes were bad then but now as an adult it's gotten Worse.

There’s a reason the first blues song was called “saint louis blues” and Duke Ellingtons first song was called “east saint Louis toodle-Oo”💀

White flight!

They stopped enforcing the law and the political leaders embezzled tax dollars.

Turn the speed to x1.25

We still exist

Redlining happened to East St Louis. That is the supreme problem. The People are Awesome!

It's now a 3rd world shit hole. People who do succeed do so despite East St. Louis itself.

The crime and gang activity is a result of the predominantly black population.
Like Detroit and Memphis ,all of these having upto 80 to 90% of Black population, they are among the highest crime rates and most unsafe cities in America by record as of now.

East St Louis is one of many fine spots in this country where the Africans of America go to be alone.

Racism is what happened. Still love the people and history though.

radical democrats in charge ,what do you expect ,all major democrat run cities are hell holes

Give Whites rocks and stones and they'll build a city. Give Blacks a city and they'll reduce it to rocks and stones.

I knew a guy who was taking his family on vacation in their brand new station wagon and they accidentally got lost in East St.louis. When he stopped to ask for directions they stole the hubcaps off his brand new car! They should make a movie with that scene in it.🤣😎

I have solution: move all blacks out and give the land for Chinese investors. They could build a better economic zone than democrat politicians!

My household was one of the few white (passing) families that still lived there ( N 16th street, near the Henrietta cross street) until about 84, my cousin lived near the old Ventures store, can't remember the name anymore. Drove through there not long ago going back to visit family in the area and didn't even recognize it, most the homes I knew, including my own, are gone, nothing in its spot, just empty land.

full of homicidal thugs

Why come folks never ask what happened to white towns that folded up when their main industry left. The reason you can speak about East St Louis is because they persevered. Why not ask why has East St Louis persevered even though other towns facing must less has folded up.

That's one of these "2x makes it normal" videos.